NEW DELHI
Event Context
Team Analysis
A Delhi court on Wednesday stayed non-bailable warrants (NBWs) issued against student leader Aishe Ghosh for protesting outside the Banga Bhawan in 2021 over alleged police action against Left-wing youth organisations in Kolkata.
The order, passed by judicial magistrate first class Vijayshree Rathore of the Patiala House courts, comes a day after the Delhi Police had entered the New Delhi office of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) to execute the warrants, which led to a confrontation between the party leaders and police personnel. CPI-M members alleged that the action was over Ghosh’s role in the recent central Delhi protests. Delhi Police, however, clarified that an investigating officer had gone to execute court-issued non-bailable warrants in the 2021 case.
Advocates KN Jayasankar and Subhash Chandran KR, representing former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president and CPI-M leader Ghosh, moved an application in court, stating that Ghosh could not appear on the last date of the hearing due to unavoidable circumstances.
On February 12, 2021, members of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) held a demonstration outside Banga Bhawan in Chanakyapuri. The protest was organised against the alleged police crackdown on student unions and youth protestors in Kolkata for opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act-National Register of Citizens (CAA-NRC).
Delhi Police maintained that the protest took place in a prohibited area and allegedly violated prohibitory orders. They alleged that the protesters raised slogans and blocked the road, refusing to disperse despite clear directions.
An FIR was lodged at Barakhamba Road Police Station against Aishe Ghosh and 15 others, under sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 34 (common intention) and 447 (criminal trespass) of the Indian Penal Code on February 12, 2021.
A charge sheet was filed in the case in February 2022, with arguments on the charges yet to begin.
Opposition, govt face off in Parliament
Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, in Parliament on Wednesday, demanded accountability from those who authorised the police action.
However, Union minister JP Nadda accused the Opposition of sensationalising a “normal law and order situation”.
Kharge said, “It is very shameful that the CBI, police officials can enter the office of a national political party like this. Democracy is not safe; people are not safe. Therefore, I request you, that the people who went there should be punished…Who were they? Who ordered them to go there?”
CPI-M MP John Brittas, who was on the premises during the police approach, said, “Her (Aishe Ghosh’s) only mistake was that she participated in the Jantar Mantar agitation… The shocking thing is that they came without uniforms.The 1997 case and the SOP of Delhi Police state that the Delhi Police has to be identified. They want to spread fear among the youngsters.”
In response to the allegations, Nadda said, “They are trying to sensationalise the matter. It is a normal law-and-order activity which the police undertake. Any student activist who wants to do activism should face this.”
Nadda added that as a student activist, he faced similar arrests during the 1975 Emergency. “I have been a student activist. I have been arrested many times from the classroom in Emergency days, when the Congress was ruling,” Nadda said.
(with inputs from Pragati Chawla)
Match Outlook
After perusing the record, the court stated, “In view of the submissions, NBWs are stayed till NDOH [next date of hearing] with direction to appear in person in NDOH.”
The court issued the NBWs against Ghosh on April 11, after noting that the warrants issued against her on December 12, 2025, had been returned without being executed.
Then, the court had said, “As per the report, accused was not found at the given address. However, she was telephonically informed about date of hearing”.
Subsequently, the court went on to issue the warrants against her through the deputy commissioner of police.
source
According to court records, Ghosh and her counsel failed to appear in court since August 2024, following which the magistrate issued multiple bailable warrants against her, before issuing the first non-bailable warrant in December 2025.
